Roscoe Mitchell, James Fei, William Winant
Unbelievable trio. Saw them perform fairly recently. Was thoroughly edified by Roscoe Mitchell. So glad there is a video of this piece.
Appearing tonight with The James Singleton Quartet
tonight at chickie wah wah, canal st. (New Orleans)
around 10pm.
james singleton- bass
johnny vidacovich-drums
rex gregory- sax
jonathan freilich- guitar
this is one not to miss.
The sagacious, genius, unpredictibilities of James and Johnny. The weighted spritelinesses of Rex Gregory in creative moods. And me somewhere in the amorphous and great unknown- some sort of mid-riff.
what I'm driving at here, is killer music!
Two shows in New Orleans this week
Solo at The Parlor on St. Claude Ave at 6pm on Wednesday- get your costumes! Music. Drinks.
Friday Night- with the James Singleton Quartet at Chickie Wah Wah on Canal St at 10pm-
Stunning Lineup-
James Singleton- bass
Johnny Vidacovich-drums
Rex Gregory- sax
jonathan Freilich- guitar
Please come out. Overjoyed to be back in town for an extended detour.
How about a little Pete memory
He really made the effort and this is such a musically strange record...liberating in a certain manner...even when the delivery sometimes made me uncomfortable...
007 set for two shows in New Orleans this weekend
Excuse the late delivery...
Tonight at Maple Leaf Bar, uptown on Oak St
Tomorrow night at DBA on Frenchmen St.
007 is back on the scene.
Jeffrey Clemens-Drums, Vocals
Joe Cabral-Bass, Vocals
Alex Mcmurray- Guitar, Vocals
Jonathan Freilich-Guitar
Hear the sounds here...
Further music crackdowns in New Orleans?
limitations on instrumentation. Apparently only trios unplugged tonight or risk a fine. This is even beyond a volume restriction it's a government control over what kind of ensembles can be presented.
Further control of expression. Soon they will overtly go after sexuality, sensuality, intelligence, the intellectuals...
Actually, America has already done such a good deal to repress sexuality so the rest is pretty easy. it's the great swindle- (just confuse it with porn...) then do a propagandistic switcheroo.
What has this to do with music development? Almost everything. Stand by...I'll explain shortly.
The threepenny opera-3 more nights
Musical director for this one. And I've put together a great band. Come out to Calarts Modulor theater for a full helping of Brecht and Weill's century altering reworking of the beggars opera featuring the original orchestrations.
shows are at 8pm.
Find out "what keeps mankind alive?"
The imperiled Crescent City- More important analysis from Nolascape
After a recent stay in New Orleans I had hoped to write an article of the sort of bizarre, disproportionate rate and direction of change that is occurring in one of the great cultural zones in the US. There are powerful forces there who are quickly in the midst of a massive cultural dismantlement through land and property takeovers. It's all a bit hard to sum up, but since gentrification and it's dark backlashes are a contemporary destructive problem to so many, these discussions are important to watch. Who wants a vapid and meaningless, consumer façade, masquerading as real life; masquerading as the real art and artifacts of existence across time?
This writer, gets to the heart of it and exposes a good deal about American economic policy that is little known at the same time. The article is also entertaining, incase you are in that group that can't handle the laconic approach- this even partially criticizes that discursive approach (or cover for one.)
Strange...there's something about it that reminds me of that Yossarian society business. (See the Sept,6 entry below.)
At any rate... here is the link
Manfred Werder...Interesting music philosophy and poetry
There is the oft dismissed world of EXPERIMENTAL music. Often dismissed with good reason where it's lacking, but that can also be said of more iconic known ways of tackling music. This is really too bad. If there is genuine interest in music - as much as possible is the amount that should be checked into and asked about.
....also the environment in which it is all occurring- experienced, experiencer, experiencing. Much is looked at in this composers' writings and pieces that reflect his subtle philosophy. And the sparse blogsite is nice too...
Check it out. Mull it over. There aren't that many adherents to 4'33'' in the world any more. These folks never let it go...it gave room for development where for most it was the end of a thought process. Goes to show, we can go deeper in any direction we choose.
Of interest: The Yossarian society
Here is an interesting website.
There is a new society being birthed. Concerned with a number of things I would think, but right now the site has a good deal of focus on the plague of folks that would distract you from anything of actual importance in New Orleans, by endlessly attempting to suggest that sound ordinances are somehow a mark of great civilization- more than the culture of music!?!?!
What can be said...Katrina courted throngs of people that have no idea and have fallen prey to some rich maniacs and carpetbaggers who are attempting to gain vast long term control over the profit systems in New Orleans. But, it's surely the old Louisiana political story: a new pipeline to fly high volumes of cash into a few local old pockets under the guise of renewal and a few beads for the new masses caught in the excitement.
Anyway, this mysterious
Yossarian Society
sheds more light than this brief rant-ette.
For instance, the Society says this...
"Yossarian is entry level anarchism.
We like anarchism if it is funny. When it is a challenge, like Emma Goldman, not so much. So let’s try to start with some funny.
Yossarian’s philosophy is a first step. What happens when the Governing Caste slips its anchor? Yossarian pokes it in the eye."
...Can't be bad...who, after all, didn't get the tragic truths of 'Catch-22'. If Heller could only see this world!
Alison Fensterstock, Times Picayune article connects to the interviews
Piety St. Studios will be shutting its doors shortly. Mark Bingham talks about it in this article...
The Mark Bingham interview referenced and another, earlier one are available on the interviews page...
Part 2 of interview with Brice Miller is out!
The interview is on the interviews page...
For more on the fascinating Brice miller, bandleader, scholar, trumpet player see the entry further down on this blog about part 1.
Tonight at Bacchanal- w/ Bill Malchow, Alex Mcmurry, Kevin O'Day
It's such a crazy week that I omitted an announcement about tonights really promising show at Bacchanal Wine in the Bywater. Great food too.
Showtime is 7:30-10:30p
Alex Mcmurray-gtr;vcls
Bill Malchow-keys; vcls
Kevin O'Day- drums
Jonathan Freilich-gtr;vcls
Kevin O'Day! That should be something!
Ecumenical music?
This week's gigs: Jonathan Freilich Quartet, Mas Mamones, The Tom Paines, Naked On The Floor
Hello All,
This week is the last chance to catch me locally for quite a long stretch. Luckily it is a great week of shows for a send off. You are assured to see some of the city's finest up to some unusual and interesting musical escapades and explorations in some unusual local haunts.
Here is the run:
Sunday Aug. 18th at Snug Harbor- The Jonathan Freilich Quartet
w/ James Singleton-bass; Tim Green-sax; Johnny Vidacovich -drums
Tuesday Aug. 20th- The Open Ears series at Circle Bar - Naked On The Floor feat.-
Jeff Albert-tb; Paul Thibodeaux-drums; James Singleton-bass;
Ray Moore-Bari Sax; Tim Green-sax
Friday Aug. 23rd- at Casa Borrega- w/ Mas Mamones
Saturday Aug. 24th- at Siberia- w/ The Tom Paines
Tonight at Saturn Bar, NOLA- The Tom Paines-11pm
I almost forgot to mention it, but always worth a catch if you like the old acoustic guitars rolling and blending around some of the old songs. And, what better time in American history to remember old Tom Paine...
Alex Mcmurray- guitar, vocals
Jonathan Freilich- guitar, vocals.
Come find out how chicken is best cooked for an obscure Liberian songster...
Albu is still available and sounds great thanks to Mark Bingham at Piety St. Studios...
Part 1 of Interview with Brice Miller, trumpeter, bandleader, scholar...
...amongst many other things. This interview will be of great interest for anyone with an eye and ear toward New Orleans musical traditions and culture. That doesn't cover all that is opened up here, however. Much is also explored on the relation of the music to the history of the city, and the many unfortunate changes of late. It speaks a lot to musical meaning in general- something important to everyone- so worth every bit of attention.
Brice's picture of these things is heightened by the authority of his experiences as brass band leader, and by the fact that his Father came from the same tradition. He grew up in the stories and transmissions of a previous generation of New Orleans musician and has an intimate experience of that life. He is old enough to chronicle some change himself. He has traveled the world as a representative of this tradition with its cornucopia of beautiful, rhythmic music.
His interests and inquiry do not stop there...
Brice is also currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Alabama for an interdisciplinary degree with an emphasis on New Orleans brass bands after Hurricane Katrina. There is much discussion of his academic focus in the interview, and this ends up speaking of the horrors of intentional community displacement, and the results of that in New Orleans's ongoing identity and survival struggles.
And then there is talk of the fascinating tales of Ecirb Müller: revelations and perspective coming to light at a club near you.
It has been quite some time since the last audio interview was posted. This is a long and complete one on important musical subjects thanks to Brice's generosity. It will be posted in digest-able segments over the next short while. There was a final hour that became more conversational. Perhaps that segment will also be posted, as much was uncovered there as well.
The Interview is now up on the interviews page
Tonight at Circle Bar- The Jackals 10pm
So good last week we got another shot. Come out. As Alex Mcmurray (there tonight!) says, it's ecumenical music.
last week's crowd
The Jackals are:
Doug Garrison- drums
Joe Cabral-bass
Jonathan Freilich-guitar
Alex Mcmurray-guitar
Oh yes...Alex and Joe sing songs too. And not all in one language either. Collectively we are unafraid of a multilingual universe. Lengue, eh?
Doug Garrison
Joe Cabral
Gray Gankendorff and Alex Mcmurray
At 3muses tonight at 8pm-joe Cabral band
Tonight. after your linen has been truly gallery dirtied. get over to three muses- nola. great songs played at a high level. no sacrifice of essential humanity involved. you will beam and easily grab a fine wine at the same time!
Alex Mcmurray-guitar/vocals
James Singleton-bass
Joe Cabral-saxophone
Jonathan Freilich
The Jackals ride again-Circle Bar Wed Aug 7-10pm(that's tonight!)
Hard as it's been to get some time where we can all make it, we finally did. If you are unfamiliar with The Jackals, it was the sequel to 007 which became 00-Doug when drummer Jeffrey Clemens wasn't around. Lip service had to be paid to those voices that attempt minor potential gains through strict name recognition, so we changed the name to The Jackals. Now it is vastly distinguished from 007. You'll see!
Anyway we are at The Circle bar this Wednesday at 10pm.
Be there or don't. But...
As Louis Armstrong said "I never was born to be a Square about anything, no matter what it is..."
How about you?
The lineup is:
joe cabral
Alex Mcmurray
The Itunes podcast, 'Interviews with notable New Orleans musicians' is back
Go directly to the new feed...
The itunes feed was down for some time while this site was revamped. Now the old interviews are slowly going back up. The podcast was initially conceived to ask deeper questions of musicians than what the standard music press, in its often genre-based, marketing centric, 'false-omniscience', tends to presume. When these interviews started several years ago, I had a distinct sense that musical awareness and interest was perhaps declining because questions were not being asked. Things may actually have gotten even worse in music journalism than a few years ago when these interviews started.
If you are interested in New Orleans's musical drivers plow on. There are many that I haven't had the opportunity to interview yet but I hope to. I try not to bias specific groups or styles but I have only had access to these figures so far. Connections are unintentional as far as preference goes but sometimes it does expose a network or community which is of interest.
The podcast features notable figures that relate in some way to the current vibrancy of the New Orleans music scene and community. It seeks to form a dialogue between ideas and motivations behind the music and the relationship of those ideas to the sound artifact being presented. The podcast also addresses what the audiences' state of understanding is about the music and whether understanding is relevant to the "success" of the musical artwork at all.
The real podcast had to be slightly renamed because of obscure problems with the iTunes store. If you search and find two podcasts under the name, Jonathan Freilich, the operational one will be 'Interviews with notable New Orleans musicians' The podcast features the material from this site's 'Interviews with Musicians' page and showcases in depth interviews with well known and lesser known contributors to New Orleans musical life. To get there on itunes click here...